


An Unexpected Talk

by Ghost7514



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Angst, Mother-Son Relationship, Ninja, OCs - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 07:27:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27159989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghost7514/pseuds/Ghost7514
Summary: By chance, or by fate, the doman Miqo'te Theron Saito finds himself having is silent contemplation interrupted by the last person he wishes to see: his mother, Rin Saito. The two proceed to share tea, and Theron gets an answer as to why she has been so cruel to him over the years.





	An Unexpected Talk

I find myself drawn to these cliffs from time to time. They give a nice view of the old battlefield below. A scar across the land that may take a generation to heal. What was once a fishing village by the river that runs through Doma is now in ruin. Clay and stone buildings reduced to rubble, discarded weapons and destroyed machines of war having replaced what was once a rather pleasant town to visit in my youth. I can see where I used to spend the very few days off I had idling fishing in the waters. I was never any good, I just had to do something other than train. Now, unless I must, I tend to avoid heading down there. I find it is best for such scars to be viewed at a distance. In order to carry out my work I must remain detached. Course, am I truly removed from the tragedy of an old war? No. But there is something else down there. A memory I can’t bury deep enough of the day I had to flee. It invades my dreams and transforms them into nightmares.  
“Ugh. You’re still crying about that? Gimme a break.”

An all too familiar voice speaks in such a callously casual manner about the pain she caused. I suppose that’s par for the course for her really.

“The spot is more Eastbound, by the way.”

She’s not wrong, but perhaps I just like this cliff over others. Ever think of that, mom? I look back at her, making sure my irritation is visible. Though she only seems to enjoy that as a rather smug expression forms once she takes notice.

“What is it you want, Rin?” I ask with as little enthusiasm as possible. Not terribly difficult considering how much I want to kill her, but the line I’m walking is being annoyed while not letting her see how much I’m seething.

Rin replies with a bit of snark, asking “Can a mother not have tea with her own child underneath the pale moon?”

Rin never seems to change outfits. A gold set of silk robes that reflect the moon’s light in such a way that gives her this almost gives her a golden glow, contrasted with a deep red skirt that peaks through a gap in the lower half of her robe. The skirt goes down to her ankles and is fitting loose and flowing like the rest of her robes. Her golden blonde hair is paired well with her robes, both in color and in sheen as Rin is one to look immaculate wherever she goes. Her hair is long, straight, and goes a little past the halfway point on her back, looking smooth as silk as if she just got done with her daily royal pampering. But having known her for as long as I have, she seems to wake up like this, truly one of the world’s greatest mysteries by far. Flawless skin complexion fair, clothes and the eyes. The only thing we really share are the piercing green eyes she has.

Rin is beautiful, and she knows it. Men and women alike flock to her, and to all she is very accommodating too both, so long as she can extract a favor from them in turn. Not that she couldn’t get what she wanted on her own. Rin’s attire works well in distracting from the katana at her side, though it too is rather flashy. Still, deception is the name of the game for Rin, she keeps her cards very close to the chest at all times.

Except with me. With me, her “beloved son” Rin is quite candid. So maybe tonight, I can get an answer.

I should have guessed Rin would bring a tea set with her only to have me make and pour the tea for her. But tea is tea and I won’t reject it even from her. And right now I would not fight her.

After a long bit of silence as we drank from our respective cups, Rin is the first to break it.  
“You must be wondering why I came all this way.”

“Not really.” I reply plainly.

“Oh.”

Good. Back to tea drinking. Maybe if we finish the pot Rin will simply take her leave. Nah, that’s just wishful thinking. She’s here for something.

“Okay, let me rephrase: You’re having tea with me because you want something from me.”

That is about the dumbest reversal I think I’ve ever heard. Not because it’s wrong, it’s very right actually. But because Rin is just trying to dodge the insurmountable task of starting a conversation. Thanks mom.

“Maybe. Whether you’re willing to give it is another thing entirely.” I say in response.  
“Well then my little shinobi, ask the titular question. The one that’s been burning in your mind for years. I figure, you’re beaten now enough that I can answer.”

I have to ignore that remark, she’s just trying to get a rise out of me. Any other time I’ve asked Rin this she never answers. But this time, it feels different. I feel it in my gut, I can finally know the truth behind her actions.

“Why? Why any of this? Why adopt me just to sell me off? Why torment me even now? Why not just kill me just, why?”  
“Two reasons” Rin replies so readily, no hint of hesitation. Still smiling, still looking all, happy and a bit smug. Does this not even matter to her?

“Reason number one: You are going to be my means of destroying this wretched world.”

I blink in disbelief and tilt my head in confusion. I want to say something but, no words leave my lips. Still it’s obvious Rin sees my very blatant confusion

“How do you think fate works? Don’t answer, I'm about to tell you.”

I let her go on. Curiosity getting the best of me.

“There is the grand tapestry of fate of which binds and connects us all to one another. An unknowable force to most, a seemingly random cosmic or divine…” She loses her words for a moment before finishing with, “thing.”

“This thing is a singular version of fate. But on a more interpersonal level there is fate created by those relations. To put it more simply, I am your mom and I want you to hurt. I want you to be the most miserable Shinobi to walk this world.”

“I-I…what? That’s it?”

“I said two reasons and I wasn’t done with reason one.”

“Sorry.”

Just, to make me suffer? I have to listen.

“I dictate your fate. Your life’s misery has been mine to control and push for. The things I have done to you, and continue to do to you are so that you can be -and this is a technical term- a sad sack of shit.”

I feel pangs in my chest. My heart got stabbed once more by her. I understand why she’s telling me, it’s only causing more hurt.

“In essence, I, as your mother, am also your God. One whom you revile, but you cannot deny. One who you might try to resist, but all the same I am your God so, if we’re going by what we know from Primals of Eorzea, you’d be tempered basically. Your will is non-existent. You’re not actually tempered, that’s what my process of breaking your spirit is about. Tempering without me turning into an actual Primal God.”

Everything is just for that. Just to control me, as if I’m some, enslaved pet to a Primal. No there has to be more.

“You must think there’s more. And that’s true, because eventually people will take pity on a sad sack of shit. But you’re so thoroughly broken that you won’t ever truly let them in. In turn, while their fate may end up bound to yours, your fate is not bound to them, it is still bound to me. So, in essence, any who flock to you will also be under my control. Their fate will by mine to weave; their fate and the fate of their loved ones and close confidants and so on.”

I stare in silence just, processing that. That’s utterly insane. And yet, for all her cruelty, Rin is a very rational person. Mom, you’re doing this all just for control?

“So.” I pause as I carefully choose my next words. “It’s about domination. You want to control other people’s fates. But then, where will you stop?”

“I won’t.” Rin answers plainly.  
“I will stop once the entire world is bound to you, and well me. Fate as a whole, will be mine to bend. But I said two reasons, that’s reason number one. Now for reason number two.”

I’m still reeling from number one, it sounds actually batshit insane and yet she says it with such confidence. Rin truly believes she can control fate itself.

“The second reason is far more simple: I like hurting you.”  
A part of me always knew this. How else would someone adopt and psychologically torture their child for years? At least, in the very specific way that she tortures me. Yet, some part of me always hoped that it was an act. But I was truly a fool.

“When you look across the Quicksands with longing for the company of another for more then a single night if any at all fills me with satisfaction knowing I crippled your ability to even attempt to connect to another.”

“Yeah.”

This strange feeling swells up inside. A firing rising in my heart. My hand starts to grip my tea cup tighter as I stare daggers into Rin’s eyes. My own mother did this for her amusement, and there she sits now, still so pleased with herself at my growing anger.

“I fear you’d take them from me. I know you would. Now more then ever I know you would do that just because it’d hurt me. You’d wait until we connected, and then rip them away.”

“Precisely!” Rin happily claps her hands together as if I answered some difficult query correctly. “Now you catch on.

Rin continues. “or whenever you come here to angst about the loss of your friends by my hands. Or when you tremble at any potential encounter with me through other contacts. Oh do I love to see that pang of shock and fear every time you’re approached by some hapless fool who can’t even begin to comprehend the amount of damage they’re doing by delivering some kind of message from me to you. Gods! It fills me with such life to see you so damn lonely and pathetic.”

I can feel like something broke in my mind. Something shifted. “And that’s why you don’t kill me. You enjoy it too much. Fucking me over like you do” I bitterly state.

“Absolutely, yes! I’m so glad you finally understand” Rin so happily affirms.

My right hand grips the porcelain teacup with such force that it breaks under the pressure as it clenches into a fist. Shards of the teacup stab into my hand, but I keep squeezing tighter, letting my blood drip from down into the grass, keeping my eye contact unbroken from my oh so wonderful mother. This pain in my hand only dulled by the image forming in my head, of that gripped hand around her neck.

“Tsk. You’re making a mess, Theron. And I got that tea set just for today.” Rin feigns disappointment as she is reveling in my reaction to all this.

I take a deep breath, letting the bloody grip loosen up as I center myself. A focused rage is far more preferable to a blind one. Luckily, or perhaps not so luckily, Rin made it rather easy to give a target to focus my rage on.

“If you would treat a son like this who I am convinced you stole from his biological parents, then I shudder to think the kind of fate you would have in store for the world at large. But frankly, I can’t say I care at this moment. All I want is to see the light leave your eyes with your last moments knowing that it was this pathetic son of yours who still managed to take all that you are and will be from you in the end. I want you to feel that same helplessness you’ve made me feel for over 10 years. I will make sure you do, Rin Saito, I swear it.”

Rin’s smile has faded, she looks more serious as I spoke as if she was really taking it in. She didn’t even touch her tea until I was finished. Then, Rin pours the last of the tea from the pot in her cup, and takes a very long, drawn out sip. Loudly slurping it all up until her cup is empty. Then she sets it down and packs up her tea set. Putting it back in the finely crafted wooden case that she has all nice and neat, not uttering so much as a letter. Once she finishes, Rin stands, I stand with her still pissed to all hell at her. But she doesn’t move, she just stares black stoically for what feels like a minor eternity. Then, that smug smile comes back on her face.

“Good.”

That’s all Rin ends with. A smile, approval, and a bow before she turns, and walks away. Her approval rings in my head, as I realize that that was no doubt the end goal all along. I can hide it from everyone and anyone who would even attempt to speak to me, but now she knows that when it comes to her, I am but a vengeful killer out for her blood. She got the last word. So what does that say about me? I’m sure I’ll regret it later. 

But in all honesty, at this very moment, I can’t say I give a shit.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed the read. I haven't written anything in years, and this is a part of my OC, Theron's, story in FFXIV so I thought I'd post it here too even if no one reads it. But if someone does, hope you liked it! It's very rough I just kind of wrote it and posted it with minor edits. Just needed to get something out there.


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